Written Answers Tuesday 14 April 2009

Scottish Executive

Agriculture

Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether farmers can apply to the National Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation Scheme for funding to support the provision of storage facilities for malting barley.

Richard Lochhead: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-22271 on 7 April 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

Agriculture

Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what financial support has been provided to the Scotch whisky industry, malting industry and malting barley supply chain from the National Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation Scheme.

Richard Lochhead: The National Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation Scheme has provided £3.2 million assistance to the food elements in malting projects.

Justice

Gavin Brown (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many crimes of shoplifting have been recorded in each month since January 2007, broken down by local authority area.

Kenny MacAskill: Information on the number of crimes recorded by the police is published on an annual basis and it is not possible to provide this information on a monthly basis.

  I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-21942 on 19 March 2009. All answers to parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Livestock

Peter Peacock (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding annually goes to support farmers and crofters with the costs of dealing with fallen stock.

Richard Lochhead: Scottish Government has provided just over £3 million to farmers via the National Fallen Stock Scheme for the funding period 2004-08 to support farmers in the collection and disposal of fallen stock as they adjusted to the new requirements on the disposal of fallen stock. This funding expired in November 2008. Following representations from devolved administrations and industry stakeholders, a further £2 million was made available in 2009 from the GB Animal Health and Welfare budget. This is intended as transitional funding to support the collection and disposal of adult fallen cattle in Great Britain, which are required to be sampled for BSE surveillance purposes.

Local Government Finance

Jackson Carlaw (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total revenue budget is for each local authority in 2009-10.

John Swinney: The information requested is expected to be available in June 2009. I will write to the member as soon as the information is available and a copy will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib number 47916).

Prison Service

David Stewart (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to reopen the women-only facility at HM Prison Inverness.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

  The SPS has no plans at this time to transfer female prisoners into Inverness. The facility in the prison previously set aside to accommodate female prisoners remains ready for use should the need arise as a consequence of overcrowding at HMP Cornton Vale.

Sex Offenders

Paul Martin (Glasgow Springburn) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-9510 by Kenny MacAskill on 5 February 2008, how many of the 33 recommendations in the Justice 2 Sub-committee’s report J2SC/S2/06/R1 on managing registered sex offenders have been delivered since 10 May 2007 and on what date the recommendations were or are expected to be implemented.

Kenny MacAskill: The detailed information requested is currently being collated and I will write to the member as soon as the information is available. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 47917).

Veterinary Services

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps have been taken to recruit a suitable manager for the Thurso Disease Surveillance Centre.

Richard Lochhead: The Thurso Disease Surveillance Centre is not a Scottish Government facility but is part of the Scottish Agricultural College’s (SAC) network of veterinary laboratories. SAC are a private company limited by guarantee.

  Due to the specialist nature of this post, in a remote part of Scotland, recruitment of a suitably trained and experienced veterinary surgeon is difficult. Recognising this challenge SAC moved rapidly to secure the services of two local veterinary practitioners who have been contracted to provide an uninterrupted service. An agreement has been reached with the local veterinary practice, DS McGregor and Partners, to ensure that appropriately trained vets will continue to provide a post mortem service from SAC’s existing Janetstown premises, laboratory samples will also be sent to Thurso from other parts of Scotland to supplement this work.

  Veterinary officials are satisfied that these arrangements will meet the requirements of the Scottish Government’s surveillance programme and will continue to monitor the situation.

Veterinary Services

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has received from vets and agricultural bodies regarding the recruitment of a suitable manager for the Thurso Disease Surveillance Centre.

Richard Lochhead: No representations have been received by the Scottish Government from veterinary surgeons or agricultural bodies regarding the Scottish Agricultural College’s Thurso Disease Surveillance Centre. Correspondence was received from two MSPs.